I agree the stringer in the photo has received damage. But, because these cars were revolutionary when built and received a lot of press, extensive write ups in both Railway Review and Railway Mechani

Rob, Was this directed at my message? You asked about USRA cars with other than 5/5/5 ends, and I directed you to some "clones", clones being USRA design body framing, built after the USRA ceased to e

There were some "clones" of the USRA design that had two panel ends with a 7/8 rib arrangement, built in the early twenties. Canadian Pacific had some, as did C&NW, but these later cars were slightly

More complex than that. The roofs shown in my post are "outside metal roofs" intended to only be a weather covering over a wood roof structure. Each company also eventually made "all steel" roofs that

I think one of the problems is with our terminology; when modelers hear "Hutchins" they immediately assume that firm's Dry Ladding roof. However, in the WWI era Murphy, Hutchins, and Chicago-Cleveland

Scott, Where is this reference to a "blacksmith car" coming from? Dennis Storzek

They are express trucks. These were express cars, equipped for passenger service. If you enlarge the pic and look closely under the end of the hopper, you can see the steam line connector on the flatc

Ready mix? That's a relatively new concept, dating to the thirties. Before that, materials were delivered to the job site and mixed there. Cement typically came in bags - the perfect container. Labor

Has to be a modeler's term. On the prototype they'd be concerned with the structural member, not the attachment rivets. Dennis Storzek

I doubt they had to remove it; the cattle would take care of that :-) The short text included with the image is interesting, in that it mentions hides "sticking" to the slats. I suspect the UP initial

Probably about thirty thousand pounds... Dennis Storzek

What would be really useful would be some actual dimensions. The MCB Recommended Practice, adopted 1905 and revised 1917, published in the 1922 CBC calls for interior dimensions 4" wide X 5". This wou

Nelson, here is the URL: https://realstmfc.groups.io/g/main/files/Freight%20Car%20UnderbodyDetail.pdf You are correct that the reservoir had a defined top and bottom, they were always mounted with the

No more expensive than any of the Dreadnaught variations that came after. I suspect this was a Haskell & Barker proprietary design... All three orders of cars on which it was used were built by H&B, a

Actually, since you've already primed the styrene with something that should bond to it, I would just use drywall taping compound. The bond between taping compound and styrene would be questionable, b

I'm not sure JB Weld is what Nelson wants to use on a vertical joint on the backdrop, in my experience it tends to run or slump. I would go with one of the two part polyester auto body fillers; Bondo

Actually going far, in a train, is not a problem, as the other cars will have brakes. Note the NO BRAKE notation isn't on the side, where the carmen could see it, but rather on the end. It's a warning

Just because you've never heard it, doesn't mean it's incorrect. From the Collins dictionary https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/slag 3. a mixture of shale, clay, coal dust, and ot

The locking pin is the same, it's just pushed up from the bottom.

I agree with Tim, since the cars had car cement on the ends when built, and it's not a foregone conclusion that the few cars that got the Soo Locks commemorative paint scheme actually received full re